The Panthers have agreed to terms with free agent defenseman Mike Weaver on a two-year, $1.8 million contract. The one-way deal will pay Weaver $900,000 each season.

Weaver, 32, has four goals, 38 assists and a minus-5 rating in 339 NHL games with four teams — the Thrashers, Kings, Canucks and Blues. He spent the past two of his seven NHL seasons with St. Louis, and was a key contributor on the Blues’ penalty kill, which ranked No. 1 in the NHL last season.

“He does a lot of things really well,” Panthers assistant GM Mike Santos said. “He’s as good of a PK guy as there is in the NHL.”

The 5-foot-9, 186-pounder had a career high 10 points (one goal) and a career-best plus-10 rating in 77 games last season. Santos said there’s no concern about Weaver’s size.

“I’ll tell you why: I had two guys that remind me of this guy — Greg Zanon and Francis Bouillon,” Santos said. “Size doesn’t bother him…and he’s a real good decision maker. He doesn’t make a lot of mistakes.”

Weaver is expected to compete for a spot in the Panthers’ third pairing. Weaver’s signing provides the Panthers more depth and No. 3 overall draft pick Erik Gudbranson more competition to make the team as a rookie.

That seems to signal the Panthers plan on returning Gudbranson to juniors either before the end of training camp or before he plays his 10th regular season game, which would start the clock on Gudbranson’s entry-level deal yet to be signed.

Here’s what Santos had to say about that:

“I wouldn’t say Gudbranson can’t make the team, but he has to make the team. We’re not going to give anything to him. If he comes in and he’s better than any of those guys in front of him, then he’ll be on the team. But there’s nothing wrong with an 18-year-old continuing to develop in juniors. It’s nice to have this depth, so you don’t put that pressure on an 18-year-old where he has to come in and step in.”

Well the defense is set and Ellerby will start in the AHL with Guds likely going back to his minor league team. This is a decent signing. The guy might be smallish for a defenseman, but he can lay out some hits and is an excellent PKer, something we can certainly use.

nhl network replayed game 4 of the 96 finals. back when hockey mattered in south florida.the miami arena was a hockey friendly bandbox that sold out most nights.now the bac is mostly half empty, especially when western conference teams come to town.cats will face stiff competition in their division with the lightning and thrashers seemingly improving.

Good depth signing.. Finally, we’re starting to look for guys that are good “decision makers”….Maybe if we can find a few more, we won’t get outshot 80% of the time… All in all, nice depth signing that gives us options in case we can offload Allen’s contract, or McCabe probably closer to the trade deadline…

Great move by Santos and Tallon. Gudbranson was injured for part of the season last year. WHy rush him into the NHL lineup when he could get hurt again. Plus, it makes competitive in training camp for the 5 and 6th spots.

Also, good move by the panthers adding some more D to Rochester. There were some defensive issues in Rochester last season. It should be interesting to see who makes it into the lineup there.

Not sure about Wilson, but I wouldn’t mind seeing Ellerby go. He just doesn’t have “IT”. Looking at the cats’ in the system roster, we have a wealth of young guys coming up.. it’s ridiculous. Solid guys on both ends of the blue line… Adam Comrie, Clay Wilson, Gudbranson…. and I for one can’t wait to see Drew Shore play. I don’t know why, but I like that kid. Bjugstad continues to impress as well. Also, it is being rumored that we are in on Niemi… that would be interesting.

I for one am excited about the additions of Grabner, Higgins, Bernier, and Weaver to this team. Wideman as well. New faces brings new attitude. All these new guys will help a lot. Booth flying down the ice (head up hopefully) with Grabs with him is going to be a nice combination. One more center ice guy and we should be somewhat less boring than a lot of people think we are going to be. I like Mattias and Repik, Dadonov I didn’t see much of last year but I am sure all three of them will be exciting to watch. Keep thinking Colorado. Their roster was less exciting last season than ours is.. We won’t know until the puck drops. We should have picked up Kennedy, though.

With Dale’s philosophy I think it will happen for sure. Another rumor real quick… supposedly we are trading Steve Bernier to Montreal. No idea if this is true. Actually I think they Hab’s are just showing interest. I say no. I mean what would we get back? Carey Price? I’d rather take Niemi and trade Vokoun for some players/picks..

Drew Shore is going to be a top 6 guy at the University of Denver this year. I’ll keep you guys posted on his progress as I am a DU season ticket holder (much better value than my old Panther season tickets! I pay 400 bucks for 4th row on the shoot twice blue line!) Barring an incredible breakout year, I’d expect Drew to have at least 2 more years in a starring role at DU before he makes any move to Rochester or the Panthers for that matter (similar to Cheverie).

On the decision making subject Dadanov was quite impressive the last 3 games and DeBoer knows it. The puck was like glue to his skate, I did watch him carefully with and w/o the puck and was almost mistake free like Koulikov, great passer to boot and accurate reader of the game. Needs more shooting.

No Stanley cup ever!!
Not in this market or Franchise, ever and never..
This is a diseased management and management philosophy..
Either they will play in another market under a true NHL mentality management, or languish here for eternity..
It has been rehashed over and over, season after season.
.Rebuild is a credo that is just a word track to this franchise..
Come to the games if you want to see visitng teams and their players, but dont come if you want an NHL competitive experience from your Florida Panthers..

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About the author

HARVEY FIALKOV, a tennis-playing sportswriter who grew up in Long Island following the dynastic Islanders, is the new Panthers beat writer for the Sun Sentinel and looking forward to writing about the best professional sports team in Broward County.